Hardik Patel to announce Congress, PAAS agreement over reservation to Patels on Monday

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat Congress and the Hardik Patel led-Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) on Sunday said that they have reached an agreement over the issue of granting reservation to Patels.

"Earlier, we had asked the Congress to clarify how they would grant Patidars a constitutionally valid reservation. Today, we held a crucial meeting on that issue and finally reached a consensus on various options offered by the party to us. The official announcement of this agreement will be made by Hardik tomorrow in Rajkot," PAAS convener Dinesh Bambhania said after the meeting on the issue.

He is a key aide of Hardik Patel. Hardik was not present at the meeting.

"Earlier, we had asked the Congress to clarify how they would grant Patidars a constitutionally valid reservation. Today, we held a crucial meeting on that issue and finally reached a consensus on various options offered by the party to us. Official announcement of this agreement will be made by Hardik on Monday in Rajkot," said Bambhania, a key aide of Hardik Patel.

The meeting with PAAS leaders was attended by Gujarat Congress chief Bharatsinh Solanki and senior Congress leaders Siddharth Patel and Babubhai Mangukia.

Solanki claimed the meeting yielded a "positive outcome".

"The meeting was successful and yielded a positive outcome. We both agreed to implement this agreement in coming days," he said.

Meanwhile, the Congress on Sunday released the first list of its 77 candidates for the elections with senior leaders from the state Shaktisinh Gohil and Arjun Modhwadia getting tickets.

The polling for the two-phase elections in Gujarat will take place on December 9 and 14 and votes will be counted on December 18. 

(With PTI inputs)